Scale issues in soil moisture modelling: problems and prospects

Soil moisture storage is an important component of the hydrological cycle and plays a key role in land-surface-atmosphere interaction. The soil-moisture storage equation in this study considers precipitation as an input and soil moisture as a residual term for runoff and evapotranspiration. A number of models have been developed to estimate soil moisture storage and the components of the soil-moisture storage equation. A detailed discussion of the impli cation of the scale of application of these models reports that it is not possible to extrapolate processes and their estimates from the small to the large scale. It is also noted that physically based models for small-scale applications are sufficiently detailed to reproduce land-surface- atmosphere interactions. On the other hand, models for large-scale applications oversimplify the processes. Recently developed physically based models for large-scale applications can only be applied to limited uses because of data restrictions and the problems associated with land surface characterization. It is reported that remote sensing can play an important role in over coming the problems related to the unavailability of data and the land surface characterization of large-scale applications of these physically based models when estimating soil moisture storage.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

On preferential flow and its measurement

Preferential flow is a useful generic term for describing the process whereby water movement through a porous medium follows favored routes bypassing other parts of the medium. This term does not give any indication of the pore scales involved. Sometimes macropore flow is used to describe preferential flow and this term implies that large pores of some sort are conductive. There is no consensus definition of what constitutes a macropore so one needs to carefully determine what is meant when that term is used. The main focus of this report is on the measurement and characterization of preferential flow through structured soils, however, preferred path flow also occurs in sandy soils. Fingering flow in soils, a result of wetting front instability, is a third type of preferential flow that occurs in porous media with more or less random pore arrangement. There may not be any physically defined channels in the soil to account for this type of flow. A larger scale flow described as funnel flow by Kung et al. (1990) results from profile heterogeneity. Low permeability layers or coarse lenses in a profile may restrict vertical drainage redirecting flow laterally through specific regions of the profile (like a funnel). Water repellency can also be a factor in the development of preferential flow. 34 refs